Rotes & Procedures

Perhaps the most esoteric ward of all seals out time itself. On one side of the portal, time moves normally; on the other, time moves differently with regards to a traveler until that character passes through the portal again. This phenomenon – in game-terms, a vulgar Correspondence 5/ Time 5 Effect – “holds time” until the traveler steps back across the threshold of the gate. While he’s on one side, he continues to move normally in relation to the time-flow on that side, and the other side seems to stop; when he crosses over, the original destination at least appears to be in more or less the same moment he left behind.

As the Time Travel and Distortion section makes clear (see pp. 107-108), time-based Effects are notoriously tricky. Depending upon the Storyteller’s wishes, they may only seem to work until you realize that you’re in the wrong timestream, could drop you into an entirely different existence, and might not return you to where you thought you should be. For details about that situation, see Time Immunity, pp. 112-113.

Wards are meant to keep things out, or at least away from the warded object or creature. For the most part, they fulfill that function admirably – after all, the Correspondence Sphere literally places the forbidden element “at a distance” from the ward. Even so, certain things can get past those wards if they have sufficient metaphysical power behind them.